December 2010 - Posts

I love my one dog and two cats. I'm very fond of my friends' pets, too. In years past, I've bought Christmas gifts for the pets -- sometimes wrapping up a can of their regular food, sometimes going out and buying rawhide for the dogs or catnip toys for the cats. This year, I've pared down my human gifts and eliminated pet gifts.

I'm quite sure the pets don't care one way or the other, and hope their human companions won't be saddened by the lack of animal gifts. It was more of a gag gift to make the humans laugh -- I'm curious about how other people are treating their pets for Christmas. Do you buy gifts for animals, DS readers?

I usually notice the kind of coins I get in my change. A "wheat penny" stands out from a "trolley car" penny (I know it's not a trolley car, but that's what I called them when I was little and the name has stuck). And I notice the new nickels and quarters, too. My grandmother taught me to look for pre-1964 quarters and dimes, because they have high silver content and are "worth more."

Over the years I've collected a big jar of these old coins and wanted to see if they had any value beyond face value. I looked up the grading process and the values online, and it turns out many may indeed be worth more than face value. I found a site that said wheat pennies are worth at least 3 cents each. So I'm spending a little free time organzing them and scanning them and listing them on ebay to see if I can sell a penny for a dime or a dime for a quarter. Some of those silvery quarters may be worth as much as $5.00 each. That's a pretty good return on investment!

I was telling a friend about this latest project and she said, "ugh, all that work for a couple of bucks? Not worth it." But I think it is! It's been fun learning about the coins and I'm curious to see if collectors out there will buy my old coins -- I've already got bids on a few of them. What do you think, DS readers? Is it worth your while to go through your change and see if you have a little treasure-ette in your change purse? Do you think it would be worthwhile to turn a penny into a dime? Does this seem like a fun diversion or a tedious slog? Any great valuable coin stories from your own coin jar?

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